Minister Kim Young-hoon: "Yellow Envelope Act to Set Criteria for Labor Disputes... Reviewing Amendments to Enforcement Decrees and Other Measures from Multiple Angles"

Kim Young-hoon, Minister of Employment and Labor (MOEL), said on the 12th that, following President Lee Jae-myung's instructions, the government is reviewing revisions to the enforcement decree and enforcement rules of the Yellow Envelope Act, or the revised Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, to clarify the scope of labor disputes. He said the government plans to announce criteria for labor dispute cases soon, including performance bonus negotiations that have emerged mainly among large companies this year.
At a work report session that day before the National Assembly Committee on Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor, Kim responded to a question from People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won about whether subordinate regulations for the Yellow Envelope Act were being prepared. He said, "We are reviewing from multiple angles what methods, including enforcement decrees or enforcement rules, may be available."
Kim added, "I thought work guidelines alone would be enough to resolve the ambiguity," but said, "Since the president instructed us to consider institutionalizing the matter in a more specific way than guidelines, I will think in that direction."
At a State Council of South Korea meeting on the 11th, President Lee said, "There is criticism that no clear rules or examples have been created to determine whether something falls under the Yellow Envelope Act's scope of labor disputes," and added, "The request to specify standards for obvious cases is a reasonable point, so please review it actively." He also said, "Interpretation and guidelines are different. Interpretation is only an opinion," urging the government to prepare more specific and proactive institutional reforms.
Na criticized the government, saying, "The reason companies are hesitating to invest is the Yellow Envelope Act," and added, "The president also pointed out the ambiguity and instructed that it be changed through subordinate regulations." She argued that the labor law should be revised again, going beyond amendments to enforcement decrees and rules. "It is far from sufficient to revise the law through subordinate regulations without resolving the fundamental ambiguity of the law," she said. "To resolve the many conflicts caused by vague provisions, the scope of labor disputes and employer status should be narrowed through amendments."
The key issues in the Yellow Envelope Act are the expansion of employer status and the scope of labor disputes. The law recognizes employer status even when a parent company does not have a direct contractual relationship with a subcontractor, as long as it exercises substantial and specific control. It also broadens the scope of labor disputes to include "management decisions that affect working conditions." After the government announced its three major mega-project plans, the Samsung Group supra-enterprise labor union, Samsung Electronics branch, said it would use the Yellow Envelope Act as a basis to make the Honam semiconductor investment a subject of next year's negotiations, intensifying the debate. At a State Council of South Korea meeting on the 21st of last month, President Lee also remarked, "If this continues, wouldn't the scope of labor disputes become infinitely broad?"
[email protected] Kim Jun-hyuk Reporter